EU designates first ‘very large platforms’ that fall under the Digital Services Act

The EU has designated the first companies to be classified as ‘very large online platforms’ under the Digital Services Act. This includes the Apple App Store, Google Play and Facebook. The EU is still considering whether more companies will fall under the DSA.

There will initially be nineteen different online platforms and search engines classified as ‘very large online platform’ under the European Digital Services Act, European Commissioner Thierry Breton announced. These platforms will therefore face increased supervision by the European Union later this year.

Several platforms of tech giants, all with more than 45 million daily active users within the EU, fall under the DSA, according to Breton. These include the Apple App Store, Meta’s Facebook and Instagram, and Microsoft’s LinkedIn and Bing. Alphabet’s Google Maps, Play, Search, Shopping and YouTube are also covered by the DSA. The same applies to AliExpress, Amazon Marketplace, booking.com, Pinterest, Snapchat, TikTok, Twitter, Wikipedia and Zalando.

“We believe that these nineteen online platforms and search engines have become systemically relevant and have special responsibilities to make the internet safer,” Breton told reporters on Tuesday. It is currently being examined whether four to five more companies fall under the DSA. A decision on this is expected in the coming weeks. It is not known which companies this concerns.

The European Union passed the Digital Services Act in April last year. Under this law, several large platforms are subject to various new obligations, for example to combat the spread of disinformation. Major platforms under the DSA must also undertake additional risk management, have external audits carried out, share data with authorities and researchers, be transparent about their recommendation algorithms and draw up a code of conduct. These rules could apply to platforms with more than 45 million monthly active users within the European Union. The law will come into effect on August 25.